Cal driver still recovering

After one of the worst accidents in recent memory at Cal Expo, driver/trainer Ken Usherson, 51, has been in intensive care at University of California-Davis Medical Center for seven days.

Usherson, 51, suffered four broken bones in his left shoulder, a collapsed lung and several broken ribs after a horse rolled on him in a three-horse pileup, which occured during the sixth race July 20. Fluid in his lungs and around his heart delayed surgery to repair his crushed shoulder.

"He¹s actually doing much better," Don Usherson, Ken¹s brother, said Wednesday. "He¹s fortunate he didn¹t land on his head or that the horse stayed on top of him. He could have suffocated."

The incident wiped out half of the compact six-horse field.

"Rick Plano's horse made a bad break just before turning for home and the trailing horses were unable to avoid him," Sacramento Harness Association general manager Chris Schick said. "I feel very badly for Ken."

Usherson was driving pacer Black Shoals, who he also trains. Plano, the track's leading driver and trainer, was guiding Swift Cindy Ann into second place on the far turn when his filly broke stride and swerved sharply left into Black Shoals. Plano's sulky locked wheels with Usherson¹s bike and the latter driver was thrown into the infield area just inside the pylons.

Driving Coast Warrior in tight quarters behind the leaders, Rocky Stidham could not avoid the collision. His horse tripped and rolled over Usherson.

Stidham escaped serious injury. All three horses were unhurt.

Usherson, who has operated a small stable at Cal Expo since 2002, has four wins from 90 starters this year as a trainer with one win from 76 starts as a driver. (by Debbie Arrington)

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